There is more to the night than things that go bump

I was reading something the other day that referred to God's promise to Abraham. God said Abraham would have as many descendants as there are stars in the heavens.

Have you looked at the stars recently? Or tried to?

Poor Abraham. Hardly any kin left, if you put much stock in God's promises.

When was the last time you had a clear view of the night sky? If you've seen a lot of stars, you weren't in Cape Girardeau. Maybe you were in a desert far, far from here.

Many of us remember what the skies looked like before light pollution replaced smog as the No. 1 glitch in our orderly world.

In years past, on cloudless and moonless nights in the Ozarks over yonder, you could see the Milky Way stretching from horizon to horizon.

The Milky Way, for some of you younger folks who came into this world ALP (After Light Pollution), is a band of stars and planets reflecting and emitting visible light that astronomers tell us may be billions of light years from us.

In other words, the Milky Way shows us things that existed and evaporated before we were born. It gets more fascinating the more you think about it.

When we were living in Maryville, Missouri, in the 1980s, Halley's comet paid a visit. We could not see it from our backyard. Maryville is a relatively small town in an agricultural area. But we still couldn't see the comet. One frosty night we drove down U.S. 71 toward St. Joseph trying to get away from the light pollution. We pulled onto the shoulder of the highway and craned our necks to get a good view of the sky. Yes, we saw the fuzzy tail of the comet, but not much else. Even in that remote area the stars were mostly obliterated.

That was about the same time we went on a camping/float trip in the Ozarks at a church camp near Lebanon, Missouri. The first night we were there we stayed up well past sunset, mainly because it was too hot to go to sleep. One of the youngsters in the group made a noise like you might hear if she had seen the crazy guy with hooks for hands. Everyone looked at her to see what was the matter.

The awe-struck girl was looking at the night sky. We all looked. There it was. The Milky Way. None of the teens in the group had ever seen it before. Ever. They were amazed. What a fine moment to talk about what God has wrought.

My sense of astronomy is sorely lacking. I can't tell you all that much about the night sky. I can find the Big Dipper on a good night. And Orion's Belt is usually right out our patio door. Those are among the few stars bright enough to be visible these days.

A few months ago a couple of planets and maybe a star were all lined up near the western horizon, creating a pulsating glob of light that could hardly be missed. Just think, it wasn't that many years ago that the night sky was full of such wonders. Now they are rare enough to merit special attention in news stories and newscasts.

Once, when my wife and I were flying from New York to Rome, I woke up during the flight and looked out the window. There was an enormous web of lights below. A flight attendant confirmed that we were over Paris.

A few years later we visited Paris. At night we couldn't see a single star. Poor France.

There are still a few places where you can get a pretty good view of the Milky Way. These places are remote, far from the glare of streetlights and neon signs we take for granted.

If you're ever in such an area, or if you ever go camping near Lebanon, be sure to go out at night and look up. If you see the Milky Way, you will remember it for a long, long time.

But probably not for billions of light-years.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.